Commercial insurance has a volume problem—and a timing problem. As risk profiles grow more complex and demand for specialty coverage surges, traditional underwriting workflows are struggling to keep up. MGT and Amwins are betting that artificial intelligence can finally close that gap.
MGT, a vertically integrated, AI-native carrier focused on modernizing commercial property and casualty insurance, announced a partnership with Amwins, the largest independent wholesale distributor of specialty insurance products in the U.S. The collaboration brings MGT’s proprietary AI-driven underwriting and pricing platform to selected risks in the rapidly expanding Excess & Surplus (E&S) market.
The goal is straightforward but ambitious: replace days—or weeks—of manual underwriting with near-instant, data-driven decisions, while preserving the rigor the E&S market demands.
Why This Partnership Matters
The E&S market has quietly become one of the fastest-growing segments in U.S. insurance. According to AM Best, surplus lines premiums have posted seven consecutive years of double-digit growth, reaching nearly $130 billion in direct written premiums. That growth has been fueled by rising catastrophe exposure, regulatory complexity, and an increasing number of risks that standard carriers simply won’t write.
But operationally, the market has remained stubbornly old-school. Paper-heavy submissions, manual triage, and fragmented workflows have made it difficult for wholesalers and carriers to scale efficiently—especially as submission volumes spike.
This is where the MGT–Amwins partnership lands. By combining Amwins’ massive distribution footprint—138+ offices globally and $45 billion in annual premium placements—with MGT’s AI-native underwriting platform, the two companies aim to fundamentally speed up how specialty insurance is quoted, priced, and placed.
For brokers, that means faster access to competitive quotes. For policyholders, it means quicker coverage decisions and pricing that more accurately reflects risk.
Inside MGT’s AI-Native Underwriting Engine
MGT positions itself as a different kind of carrier. Rather than retrofitting AI onto legacy systems, the company built its underwriting and pricing infrastructure from the ground up around machine learning and automation.
Its platform ingests and analyzes complex commercial risk data—property characteristics, exposure signals, historical loss data, and external datasets—to generate underwriting decisions instantly, rather than routing submissions through layers of manual review.
That speed isn’t just about convenience. In the E&S market, timing can determine whether a deal closes at all. Brokers often work against tight deadlines, especially for small commercial risks that don’t justify prolonged underwriting cycles.
By deploying MGT’s AI platform through Amwins’ wholesale channel, brokers can submit risks and receive real-time, bindable pricing—without sacrificing underwriting discipline.
Graham Topol, co-founder and co-CEO of MGT, describes the partnership as proof that AI and strong insurance fundamentals aren’t mutually exclusive. The company’s thesis is that automation, when applied thoughtfully, can increase both speed and precision.
Amwins’ Role: Distribution at Scale
Amwins’ involvement is what turns this into a market-moving announcement. As the dominant wholesaler in the U.S. specialty insurance space, Amwins sits directly between retail brokers and carriers, handling enormous submission volumes across diverse risk classes.
Ben Sloop, President and COO of Amwins, frames the partnership as part of a broader push to streamline the small commercial E&S segment. That segment is particularly sensitive to inefficiency: premiums are smaller, margins are tighter, and manual processing quickly becomes uneconomical.
AI-enabled underwriting allows Amwins to empower brokers on the front lines—reducing turnaround times and improving outcomes for both retail clients and insureds.
In effect, the partnership gives Amwins a new digital lever: the ability to route select risks through an AI-native carrier that can respond at machine speed.
Lessers’ Risk Only (LRO): The First Use Case
The collaboration launches with Lessers’ Risk Only (LRO), MGT’s first E&S product. LRO is designed for small commercial risks that historically fell into an awkward gap—too complex for standard markets, but too small to justify prolonged surplus lines underwriting.
According to Chad Nitschke, General Manager of MGT Specialty, these are exactly the risks that used to take days or weeks to underwrite, despite relatively modest exposure.
With AI-driven decisioning, brokers can now receive fast, consistent outcomes—freeing them to focus on client advisory rather than chasing status updates. The expectation is that this efficiency will scale as additional products and risk classes are introduced.
A Market Ready for Disruption
The timing of the partnership is not accidental. The E&S market’s growth has exposed the limitations of traditional underwriting models. As submission volumes rise, underwriters face mounting pressure, increasing the risk of bottlenecks, inconsistencies, and burnout.
AI offers a way out—but adoption has been uneven. Many carriers remain cautious, concerned about regulatory scrutiny, explainability, and the need to maintain underwriting discipline.
MGT’s approach is notable because it positions AI as an underwriter extender, not a replacement. The platform is designed to handle segmentation, pricing, and eligibility at scale, while still aligning with the guardrails that specialty insurance requires.
For wholesalers like Amwins, that balance is critical. Speed matters, but credibility and trust matter more.
Competitive Context: AI in Insurance Is Maturing
AI has been a buzzword in insurance for over a decade, but recent advances—particularly in data availability and model performance—are pushing the industry into a more practical phase.
Insurtech startups, digital MGAs, and incumbent carriers are all experimenting with automation, but few have achieved meaningful scale in the E&S channel, where complexity is the norm.
What differentiates the MGT–Amwins partnership is its distribution-first mindset. Rather than launching a direct-to-broker platform and hoping for adoption, MGT is embedding its technology inside the workflows brokers already use—through the largest wholesale partner in the market.
That strategy mirrors successful patterns in other industries, where AI gains traction fastest when it’s invisible to the end user but transformative in impact.
Recent Momentum at MGT
The announcement builds on a period of strong momentum for MGT. In 2025, the company closed a $21.6 million Series B funding round, signaling investor confidence in its AI-native insurance model. It has also added senior leadership, including Naydia Chantarasompoth and Annie Pratt, to help scale operations and drive growth.
Those moves suggest MGT is preparing for broader expansion—both in product scope and geographic reach—as demand for faster, smarter insurance solutions grows.
What This Means for Brokers and Small Businesses
For brokers, the immediate impact is practical: fewer delays, clearer pricing, and less friction in placing E&S risks. That efficiency can translate directly into higher close rates and better client relationships.
For small businesses, the benefit is access. Faster underwriting decisions reduce uncertainty and make it easier to secure coverage in a market where options are often limited.
More broadly, the partnership signals a shift in how specialty insurance is delivered. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in underwriting and pricing, expectations will change—for speed, transparency, and consistency.
A Glimpse of Insurance’s AI-Driven Future
The MGT–Amwins collaboration reflects a growing realization across the insurance industry: the old operational model can’t sustain today’s growth. Manual processes that once defined the E&S market are colliding with record volumes and rising complexity.
By pairing AI-native underwriting with unmatched wholesale distribution, MGT and Amwins are offering a blueprint for how the next generation of specialty insurance could work—faster, smarter, and more scalable.
Whether this becomes the new standard will depend on execution and regulatory comfort. But one thing is clear: in a $130 billion market still running on paper and patience, AI-driven partnerships like this are no longer experiments—they’re becoming necessities.
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